The London Philharmonic Orchestra, besieged for suspending four players who signed an anti-Israel letter, yesterday finished recording its 205th anthem – Zimbabwe – for next summer’s London Olympic Games.

The marathon project includes the Israeli anthem, Hatikvah. But what if Palestine gets recognised by the UN between now and then. Will the orchestra have to go back to the drawing board?

UPDATE: Philip Sheppard, who arranged the anthems has tweeted an answer to my first question:  ‘Yes! Since 1996 the Palestinian territories have fielded an Olympic team. They have an anthem which we recorded.’ (Thanks, Philip)

Next question: is being paid to record the anthems of Iran and Zimbabwe a non-political act? Did none of the players decline?

A member of the Guildford audience filmed what happened after the lights went out in the town’s new concert hall.

After completing his concerto with the orchestra in pitch-darkness, Tchaikovsky winner Daniil Trifonov calmly played Chopin.

According to the Surrey Ad it was filmed by “Mark Williams, who runs William’s Newsagents in Onslow Village”. That man’s way ahead of the news.

When I went to hear the LSO last night they were all abuzz with what had happened the night before – the opening concert in the new hall of the home town of their principal flute and all-round ambassablogger, Gareth Davies.

Valery Gergiev was coming to Guildford, a dormitory town that last stirred, slightly, in the Blitz. It is a big occasion for the town. Publicans check their stocks. Department stores sellotape their windows (they can be loud, that band). The mayor puts on his chain of office and full regalia.

Concert starts, lovely performance, all smiles. Tchaikovsky Competition winner Daniil Trifonov is playing his heart out when, midway through the concerto, all the lights go out.

What’s an orchestra to do in the dark?

They play on. Just like on the Titanic. Or in the Blitz.

‘How could you play if you couldn’t see me?’ exclaimed Gergiev, later.

‘Ah, hah!’ said the LSO.

Here’s a taster of Gareth’s night out:

… It was all going terribly well until about two thirds of the way through when something rather unexpected happened. There was a pop somewhere over our heads and then the lights went out. All of the lights, stage, auditorium, foyer. 1086 people sitting in total darkness. Now occasionally things like this happen momentarily and then everything kicks into gear, the generator comes on, or the emergency lighting trips in. As this is normally what happens, after the gasp from the audience as their gala opening night started to go pear shaped, silence resumed as Daniil and the orchestra continued to play. You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face let alone the music or indeed the keyboard. The lights didn’t come back on. We carried on. A few people grabbed mobile phones out of their pockets and shone the dim screens on music. My phone was in my bag backstage. Gradually my eyesight got a little used to the dark and with the emergency exit signs in the hall being the only source left, I tipped my stand to illuminate it a little. The lights were still off. Dave Pyatt shone his torch app over as much of the woodwind music as he could and momentarily I could see. Unfortunately the torch suddenly cut out as he received a text message asking him to call his diary service. Darkness once more. We were still playing, Daniil skipping around the keyboard like nothing had happened. One member of the audience tried to stop us by starting to clap, but gave up as people shushed him. As it was now obvious the lights weren’t going to suddenly come back, Alan and Dan our stage managers came running on with small stand lights …

… continues here

Anna Netrebko, her husband and her best stage tenor of the moment are booked to warm up a key London venue ahead of next summer’s Olympics.

She’ll be appearing in London for the first time as a joint act with hubbie Erwin Schrott. Prime tenor Jonas Kaufmann makes up the pack at the Royal Albert Hall on June 6, brought together by the impresario Raymond Gubbay.

Several Olympics events will take place in the park across the road a few weeks later.

Here‘s where you book. Tickets £25-£185. Even more if you go to the touts.

Strasbourg stages the world premiere tomorrow of an opera about its most celebrated citizen.

It’s called La Nuit de Gutenburg and it honours the inventor of movable type, Johannes Gutenberg (usually spelled the German way), who spent a formative part of his adult life as a goldsmith in Strasbourg and has a central square named after him.

Gutenburg, who was born in Mainz, had a pretty turbulent time, getting driven out of one town after another by revolutions, spurned lovers and business dificulties. It seems surprising that Philippe Manoury is the first to choose him as the subject for an opera.

And to do it just as the print media he invented are finally becoming obsolescent.

More details and pictures here.

My friend Katya hangs out with the hard crowd.

Round about the time the cock is clearing its throat, she took this pic of the maestro having a little private ruminate on the piano.

Later on, when the LSO blogger gets his act together, I’ll tell you what Valery did when all the lights went out.

At the Tchaikovsky Competition this summer, the Brazilian legend Nelson Freire walked off the piano jury with, one other member told me, ‘a face like a shroud’. He was seriously ill, and Valery Gergiev was deeply concerned.

Last night Gergiev conducted Freiere at the opening of the London Symphony Orchestra season at the Barbican, with sensational results. Freire, seldmom heard in London in recent years, gave a performance of Brahms’s second piano concerto, that called Arthur Rubinstein to mind. Both sit quite still at the piano and let their fingers do the walking.

Freire has an attitude of introspection that invites the listener into his sound world. The playing is light with few heavy fffs and there are sparkles of Rubi-like mischiefs of rubato that keep the orchestra alert. But the seriousness of purpose is unmistakable and the performance unforgettable.

The small, humble virtuoso seemed embarrased by the subsequent ovation. Gergiev had to give him a friendly push in the back to propel him once more into the limelight for a glittering ovation – a rare, unnamed, airing of a melody from Gluck’s Orfeo.

Nelson’s back, and the world is all the better for that.

photo: Benjamin Ealovega